Congress is all caught up in the court...
Congress is all caught up in the court issues being debated in the Aereo case, now heading to the Supreme Court, said a Congressional Research Service report dated Monday (http://bit.ly/Ll4dLX). “Several bills introduced during the 113th Congress would implicate the…
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various parties in the Aereo and FilmOn cases,” CRS said. “The Television Consumer Freedom Act of 2013, introduced by Senator John McCain, [R-Ariz.,] would impact the market in which companies such as Aereo, FilmOn, and the broadcasters are competing.” It would permit cable providers to offer a la carte service and “deny broadcasters their spectrum licenses if they moved big event programming from broadcast television to cable,” it said. “Many of the Aereo plaintiffs have threatened this action in response to Aereo’s success in the courts.” CRS also pointed to the Consumer Choice in Online Video Act, introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. The bill “contains provisions that would address antenna rental services, such as Aereo, specifically,” and “would exempt these services from paying certain retransmission fees,” CRS said. Legislative attorney Emily Lanza wrote the report.